Brain Dead

I’ve been trying to post. Really. I’m just enormously tired. I’m not uninspired; I’ve come up with things I want to post about (focus/work styles; oh wait there was a longer list that I’ve forgotten- see I’m tired and have no memory). I thought I’d read some of my favorite blogs and see what tickled my thoughts or just warmed my neurons. Of course this started by finding that over at finslippy, Alice is having a bit of writer’s block,and asking her readers for help getting re-started after trying times.

For those of you with ADHD, getting re-started with a habit routine is something you probably have to do all the time. I say habit because habits and ADD brains don’t go together so well. We don’t just, say, write every morning at 8:30 for a few days and then discover that lo! we are automatically writing at 8:30 every day.

Instead, most days it remains a conscious activity, replete with a difficult process shifting focus away from whatever you were doing before (showering? reading e-mail?) and shifting it to the target activity. This includes remembering what you wanted to do, remembering when you wanted to do it, and remembering what time it is right now. So to you I say, do not expect your desired habit to become a habit. Ever. It might, but don’t expect it to. Just keep plugging at doing it every day. Climb aboard the wagon every day. Hone your skills at starting anew with a routine. Let go of your sense that it should be easier…that it should be automatic… that you shouldn’t have forgotten; this sense is what’s eating all your energy to actually get down and do it.

If you’re inattentive type ADHD, this sense can eat your energy, chew it up, create more energy as a by-product of digestion, use this energy to think about what you wanted to do in colorful detail, all the while forgetting to get up and do it, forgetting to eat breakfast, and making it feel hard and boring by the time you finally remember you’re still thinking about it an hour later.

I want to sum this up in a nice package of: what my writing routine is. Or: tips to make routines easier. I’ll work on that but meanwhile I’m going to get up and actually retrieve the hot beverage I’ve been meaning to drink before it is no longer hot.